[podcast]http://www.thelivinlowcarbshow.com/shownotes/wp-content/uploads/llvlcep18.mp3[/podcast]
Hello, and welcome to the eighteenth episode of “The Livin’ La Vida Low-Carb Show With Jimmy Moore!”
This week we’d like to let you know about a rather sticky bureaucratic situation across the pond in “Merry Olde England” that prevents the healthy Atkins low-carb nutritional approach from being advertised as healthier than simply remaining overweight or obese.
Does that sound scary to you? Well, it sure does to us, but it’s happening right before our eyes! If you think red tape is bad in the United States, don’t forget that Great Britain forced a company to change the name of their product “Welsh Dragon Sausages”… because it contained no actual dragon meat ! Them Brits are getting screwy, eh?
You can only imagine that our host Jimmy Moore has something to say about all of this! Listen to him take on the lunacy and bring some much-needed sanity to this issue.
LINKS MENTIONED IN EPISODE 18:
– Fresh Express New Year New You FREE PEDOMETER offer
– British Advertising Standards Authority (ASA)
– Atkins Nutritionals
– Jimmy Moore’s low-fat diet experience
Did you miss anything Jimmy said in this episode of the Livin’ La Vida Low-Carb Show? Fear not! A full transcript awaits you after the following link below…
TRANSCRIPT OF EPISODE 18:
You are listening to Episode 18 of “The Livin’ La Vida Low-Carb Show with Jimmy Moore” and I’m so glad you have chosen to take part in one of the fastest-rising health podcast shows available today. It’s my pleasure to be able to spend just a few minutes with you each week and I am grateful for the support that thousands of people have shown me since I first started this podcast. THANK YOU so much for giving me the opportunity to share with you about low-carb and weight loss. It’s awesome, baby!
I am such a big fan of green leafy veggies because they have been such an integral part of my healthy low-carb lifestyle for the past three years. That’s why I’m pleased to announce that our friends at Fresh Express want to reward you with a FREE GIFT just for making their ready-to-eat salads a regular part of your diet. Between now and March 31, 2007, just purchase any two delicious Fresh Express salad products and you will receive a Sportline pedometer absolutely free as part of the Fresh Express New Year New You promotion. Go to FreshExpress.com for all the details about how to get your FREE pedometer. Compliments of Fresh Express…where fresh comes first.
The opponents of the low-carb lifestyle have relentlessly battled this amazing way of eating for years now by proclaiming it as an unhealthy and even dangerous way to lose weight. All of this came to a head not that long ago in the UK where a print advertisement for the Atkins diet was forcibly removed by a consumer watchdog group who said there is not enough evidence that the low-carb diet is a “healthier lifestyle.” The group that brought the complaint against Atkins Nutritionals is the British Advertising Standards Authority, or the ASA, and their ruling was final. According to their Non-Broadcast Adjudication against Atkins Nutritionals, the ASA received a complaint from an anonymous consumer about a regional press ad that simply stated “Enjoy a healthier lifestyle! Atkins the original low carb lifestyle.” This complainer claimed that the Atkins diet is “an unhealthy way to lose weight” and thus, should not be allowed to be described as “healthier” in their advertising. The ASA agreed and said the Atkins company had no real proof to show that their diet was “nutritionally balanced” according to the government standards of Great Britain. They said the company could no longer repeat that claim. Of course, representatives from Atkins Nutritionals in the UK responded by reiterating their progam is a “scientifically validated strategy for weight control and good health based on controlling carbohydrate intake” and that the “eating plan was balanced nutritionally because it included protein and a balance of good fats while restricting the carbohydrates that had the greatest impact on blood sugar.” In fact, they even presented 44 scientific studies backing up every single claim they made about how healthy the diet is. It didn’t matter to the ASA, though. The UK recommendation of a low-fat, high-carb diet runs directly counter to the Atkins diet. So, advertising for any weight loss program that runs counter to those standards is prohibited. Period. They added that more long-term studies still need to be conducted to support the claims that low-carb is healthy.
When I hear stories like this one, it literally makes me want to shout, “So what are we waiting for?” If people want proof that low-carb is the effective plan that we all know it is, then we need more studies to be conducted as soon as possible so the long-term effects can be examined. Why don’t the media and the low-fat diet supporters stop their bellyaching about the so-called dangers of low-carb and get behind these additional studies? After all, if they are so sure Atkins is as unhealthy as they say it is, then more studies will certainly bear that out, right? What are they so afraid of? Unfortunately, though, this is not about the science behind the low-carb lifestyle. Rather, it’s about the blatant media bias and the deep-pocketed groups protecting their own financial self-interests while keeping the public away from the truth. Nevertheless, I am amazed that this ASA group would deny Atkins Nutritionals in the UK the opportunity to describe itself as a “healthier lifestyle.” This all sorta begs the question, though–healthier than what? If you compare low-carb with other diets, then certainly we can debate the claim about whether it is better and healthier in a side-by-side comparison. But if you compare it with the way the average diet of an overweight or obese person, then Atkins really is a “healthier lifestyle.” While that British watchdog group may not want to admit it, they will have to agree that the Atkins diet is a lot healthier than remaining obese, right? Can someone please explain to me why anyone would try to demotivate someone who desperately needs to lose weight from doing so, regardless of how they do it? Being obese is probably THE single-most unhealthy thing you can do to your body and yet there is constant talk about how “dangerous” low-carb is.
The truth is that low-carb has been around a whole LOT longer than Dr. Atkins was even alive. He was the one who brought it to the forefront of the weight loss discussion, though, and has been the regular punching bag of all those who oppose his life’s work even years after he has since tragically passed on. What is most sad to me is the fact that most of the naysayers against the Atkins and low-carb diets have NEVER even read the books. They just blindly disregard all of the science behind it that is coming out proving why it works so well for people and instead simply hyperbolize it to the degree that anyone who tries it is putting their very life in danger. What hypocritical nonsense! I have said it many times before and I’ll say it again. You are much worse off from a health standpoint to continue to carrying around 50, 100, or 200 pounds of excess body weight than you are on ANY diet program. Is anyone going to seriously argue this point with me that being obese is healthier for you than ANY attempt to lose weight?! If you weigh more than 100 pounds over what other people your height, age, and sex weigh, then you have a HUGE problem that needs IMMEDIATE action. By avoiding going on a weight loss program such as the Atkins diet because it is supposedly “unhealthy” is simply preposterous. If you need to lose weight, then you should do it HOWEVER you need to do it and as soon as possible! Don’t let intellectually dishonest recommendations by dietitians and journalists keep you from improving your health! The time is NOW and you need to get started before it is too late! That’s where I was in January 2004. My weight had climbed to 410 pounds and I was on breathing, cholesterol, and blood pressure medicine. It seemed there was no way my life would ever improve from this sad state. But then I started on that supposedly “unhealthy” Atkins diet and the weight came down to a much healthier 220 pounds where I am today. Best of all, I stopped taking all those prescription drugs in less than a year and now I’m an athletic, physically fit man today because I took action to save my life from ending prematurely. My decision to start livin’ la vida low-carb was arguably the most important thing I have ever done in my entire life. I have no regrets!
But what if I had listened to all those so-called health “experts” and eager beaver journalists putting out all of this nonsense about how “unhealthy” low-carb is? What if their words sunk into my skull and convinced me that I shouldn’t try to lose weight on the Atkins diet? Where would I be today? Would I weigh over 500 pounds and feeling even more depressed than I did at 410? Would I have suffered a massive heart attack or stroke? Would I be told that I have less than a year to live if I didn’t lose weight immediately? Or could I possibly be dead already? The what-if questions make me shudder just to think about them because any of those scenarios could easily be happening with all the negativity out there about low-carb living. I shake my head in utter disgust to think how many people are STILL suffering with a weight problem today because they have bought into the lie that livin’ la vida low-carb is going to destroy their health. Thank God I did not listen to all those negative influences three years ago and started the low-carb lifestyle anyway. My life will never be the same again. But there are people listening to me right now who are desperate and are contemplating the low-carb lifestyle for themselves. They could be reading articles and hearing the health experts give out their same old advice about backing off on the fat, calories and portions to lose weight. Despite the fact that this has never worked before, millions upon millions of people keep jumping right back on that bandwagon thinking something is going to be different this time around. They believe the low-fat, low-calorie, portion control diet is the only healthy way to lose weight and keep it off.
If that is YOU, then listen to me for just a moment. I have been where you are and have felt those same feelings. In fact, I even lost 170 pounds in 1999 by lowering my fat, calories and portions. But I felt so completely miserable and irritable (mostly from the constant hunger!) that I couldn’t keep it up over the long-term. While the weight loss was certainly a positive, I just didn’t feel right eating this way and definitely could not see myself doing that for the rest of my life. As you can imagine, I gained back every bit of that weight in just FOUR MONTHS because I was rebelling hard against the idea that I had to feel so deprived when I was trying to control my weight. I’m a big guy and I LOVE to eat. Why would I torture myself on a low-fat diet for the rest of my life?! From that experience, I learned that I would need to find a permanent way to eat that I could do that would help me lose weight in the beginning and then keep it off for good. Thankfully, I found my solution in the low-carb lifestyle. It was the healthy change I had been looking for my entire life. It is my sincerest conviction in my heart that people should start livin’ la vida low-carb RIGHT AWAY if they have a weight problem to deal with. Being fat is NOT your lot in life and you CAN lose weight for good on low-carb. I proved it could be done and am confident it can happen for you, too! So, GO FOR IT!
That’s it for Episode 18 of “The Livin’ La Vida Low-Carb Show with Jimmy Moore.” Visit our web site at TheLivinLowCarbShow.com to access the show notes section of today’s episode and to listen to past shows as well. As always, you can leave us feedback for the show by calling our listener comment line at (206) 203-4192. If you are listening to us on iTunes, then take a moment to leave a comment about the show there if you like what you’ve been hearing. I’d really appreciate it! Come back next week as we again will attempt to spread the positive and uplifting news about low-carb living. So, until then, keep on livin’ la vida low-carb.[podcast]http://www.thelivinlowcarbshow.com/shownotes/wp-content/uploads/llvlcep18.mp3[/podcast]